UT-Arlington Debuts New Course on Concrete Pipe Design

Four of the most respected experts in the field of concrete pipe will lead a new course at the University of Texas at Arlington this summer. “Structural Design of Concrete Gravity/Pressure Pipes” has been added to the curriculum of the College of Engineering, marking the first time a course focused solely on concrete pipe design has been offered in a collegiate setting.

Professor Ali Abolmaali, Tseng Huang Endowed Professor of Structural Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the university, will be assisted by three leading experts from the North American concrete pipe industry:

Joe Lundy: Director of Structural Product Design at Hanson Pipe & Precast and recent recipient of the Frank J. Heger Memorial Award, the industry's top recognition for lifetime contributions to the engineering and technical aspects of concrete pipe. Lundy is an adjunct research professor of civil engineering at UT-Arlington;

Sam Arnaout is senior vice president of engineering with Hanson Pipe & Precast and member of the board of directors for the Center for Underground Infrastructure Research and Education (CUIRE) at UT-Arlington; and

Josh Beakley is director of technical services for the American Concrete Pipe Assn. and secretary of the AASHTO Rigid Culvert Liaison Committee.

“We felt the time was right to introduce this important subject matter to our engineering students, given the key role concrete pipe plays in our national, state and local infrastructure,” said Abolmaali. “It is imperative that today’s engineers understand the fundamentals of concrete pipe design and installation, as well as the relative merits of competitive pipe products, so they enter the workforce with a solid grounding in today’s drainage systems.”

The course will cover a wide range of topics specific to both gravity and pressure pipes, beginning with a historical perspective of pipe manufacturing and installation, and progressing to design theory and methods, software workshops and special topics such as bends, curves and max flow velocity. Students will be introduced to structural analyses of circular pipes, including the theory behind plates and shells, and will get hands-on exposure to today’s production process on tours of local concrete pipe plants.

“We applaud UT-Arlington, and Professor Abolmaali in particular, for their leadership in introducing the first-ever collegiate course focused exclusively on concrete pipe design,” said Matt Childs, president of the American Concrete Pipe Assn. “They have recruited a blue-chip team of industry experts to teach the course, which we believe will become an instructional model that engineering schools across the nation will soon emulate.”